Climbing Alta Peak, Sequoia NP

I have lived in Visalia for twelve years, and for those twelve years I have looked at Alta Peak in Sequoia NP (visible from my house) thinking that I need to get on top. For one reason or another, those plans always got pushed back by other hikes. At the end of the summer I finally got around to it. But instead of doing the way most people do it (trail to the summit on the southern slopes) I decided to take the scenic route, so I convinced a friend to do a more challenging approach.

We started at Wolverton on the Lakes trail, heading toward Pear Lake. On the way we got good views at the Watchtower

Eventually the trail took us to Pear Lake

And here is where the fun began. From Pear Lake we headed cross country up the basin, encountering a lot of fun boulder scrambling on the way. First, looking back down at Pear Lake from above

Rocks and more rocks

My friend on the rocks. He loves boulder scrambles, and he got plenty of it that day.

See if you can spot my friend, he is dead center in this picture

Eventually we could see a couple chutes in the headwall; which one to take?

When we got closer we decided on the one on the right. It was a bit tricky, but we got up it without any incidents.

At the top of the chute we could see that the summit was just a short distance to the west

A short traverse, and we were on top. Looking east from the top toward the Great Western Divide and the Kaweahs. The high broad saddle in the middle of the Kaweahs (highest group on the left) is where I went over Pyra-Queen col on the way out of Kaweah Basin earlier this year.

Looking southeast down the Great Western Divide and toward Mineral King.

Looking west toward the San Joaquin Valley and home

From the summit we took the main trail down, passing a lot of nice foxtail pines on the way (one of my favorite trees)

And finally, some views along the trail on the way back to the car

We thoroughly enjoyed the trip, it was well worth the effort. The long boulder scramble wore my friend out, his wife said that when he got home he went straight to bed.

Bill - The hut at Pear Lake is now run by the park service, and it is still a popular ski destination.

Jim - It's pretty hard to escape the marmots on summits around here. They are especially crafty at locations near Mineral King.

PPine - My two loves in life are geology and dendrology, so I love the middle elevation forests and the high elevation rock equally.

Patman - Come out here and I'll take you to places like this. The trailhead for this hike is right next to Giant Forest, so you could take a walk among the big trees after doing the summit. And the trailhead for the hike I did a week ago to visit the President is from the same parking lot as where I went on my big trip this year.

Realbuff - having spent a good amount of time in the back country of both Yosemite and Sequoia/Kings Canyon, for me SEKI is the hands down winner. Higher peaks, deeper canyons, grand views. Hard to beat.

Even if you like the main attraction in Yosemite - Yosemite Valley - you can visit a canyon with the same size granite walls in Kings Canyon. Tehipite Canyon is just as deep as Yosemite Valley. The big difference? No people. You will have it to yourself.

Look at my trip reports for my longer week-long trips in SEKI to see what is there. I've barely scratched the surface. The only thing that Yosemite has better than SEKI is big waterfalls.